The One Moisturizer I Use for Bright, Clear Skin

In all of the years I’ve worked at magazines, my approach to skin care has pretty much boiled down to: Whatever’s up for grabs. I’ve been fortunate enough to excavate caviar-spiked moisturizers, snail serums, and fancy lotions from various beauty closet sales, but I’ve switched products each time I finish one, leaving me with no routine whatsoever.

And for a while, that was fun and fine! A great perk of the job! But when I started breaking out more than ever before this year — I blame stress and my decision to make a massive career change — I figured I needed to finally try and land on a steady regimen, cutting down the variables. I thought back to all the various brands I’ve tried over the years (imagine an in memoriam for your medicine cabinet) and narrowed it down to a few products I loved.

One of them was Goop’s moisturizer, which I initially fell for because it has my ideal packaging; a pump instead of a jar or a pot (bacteria!), and tall and skinny (it fits easily into my packed cabinet, filled with magazine samples). I didn’t even care about the association with wellness guruGwyneth Paltrow. I just rarely broke out while using the Goop product, which includes vitamins C and E. Since my breakouts are more stress-induced, though, I didn’t want to rush to conclusions. But my skin had taken a turn for the worse since I stopped using it.

It was astonishing. Once I reintroduced it into my daily life, my breakouts stopped completely. I became obsessed with trying to prove that this exact Goop moisturizer is my key to clear skin. Once I finished that bottle, I took a break from using it and the breakouts returned. Now I’m back on it, and my skin is looking as good as it gets — bright, soft, acne-free. Even if I introduce other serums, toners and scrubs, as long as I keep using this moisturizer, I’m good. This winter, I thought about trying a thicker cream because I have combination skin — oily in my T-zone and dry on my chin and forehead — but my dear Goop product has held on. Look, I’m not a scientist, but it feels like this thing really works, at least for me. In this great experiment that is my face, it’s the one product I keep as a control.